Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Hank Unplugged podcast, reflects on recent interaction between Senator Rand Paul and Xavier Becerra, President Biden’s Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. As Sen. Paul points out in the interchange, Sec. Becerra dubbed him, Jonathan Isaac (who plays for the Orlando Magic), and some hundred million Americans who have natural immunity against COVID-19—“flat Earthers.” Reality is that Sen. Paul, Isaac, and the millions of Americans who have looked at the science and determined that antibodies resulting from having contracted COVID-19 produce significant immunity (as is the case with measles and smallpox) are anything but obscurantists lacking mental acumen and reasoning skills. To call someone a “flat Earther” is no small slight. Andrew Dickson White, founder of Cornell University, once did the same. He decried what he called the regrettable reality that two hundred years after Ferdinand Magellan had empirically proved that the Earth was round, Christian fundamentalists persisted in perpetuating flat-Earth mythology. Like Sec. Becerra, it was White’s contention that people like Sen. Paul and Isaac were unable or unwilling to consider the facts. Thus, they must be crushed under the full weight of government mandates and penalties, until they cry uncle (Uncle Sam). What Sec. Becerra must surely know, however, is that his use of the flat-Earth moniker is pure propaganda! Columbus, of course, knew full well that unanimous scholarly opinion from Augustine to Aquinas pronounced the Earth spherical. And far from being flat Earthers, as Sec. Becerra recklessly demeans them, Sen. Paul, Isaac, and millions of other Americans are well aware of the reality that a lunar eclipse is not produced by a flat Earth. It is high time that name calling is replaced by a civil, reason- and science-based national discussion on whether natural immunity is indeed as good or better than present vaccines. Or, for that matter, whether the combination of natural immunity and vaccine immunity surpasses one or the other or both.

Hank Hanegraaff, host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast, decries the recent passing of the deceptively named Women’s Health Protection Act (H. R. 3755) in the U. S. House of Representatives. This horrendous piece of legislation would mandate in federal law virtually unfettered access to abortion, including sex selection abortion and the abortion of pre-born children with proclivities to Down Syndrome, allowing for abortions up to the very moment of birth. H. R. 3755 is perhaps the most draconian, pro-death legislation in the history of humanity. And then there is the language crisis that threatens to undo Western civilization. The bill is not specifically a “Women’s” Health Protection Act. Rather, it is “intended to protect all people with the capacity for pregnancy.” The language has shifted from women’s health to the health of “birthing people” — “cis-gender women, transgender men, non-binary individuals, those who identify with a different gender, and others.” Pregnancy is no longer the province of biological women. And this is now the perspective of the Department of Justice, CDC, and the White House. It is not enough to open our southern border to the unvetted and unvaccinated but we’re now using language to redefine the borders of human sexuality. With no objective reference points, societal norms reduce to mere matters of subjective preference.

Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast, reacts to a New York Post article reporting on the claims of the beheading of two young boys and that the Taliban have been killing off Christians with alarming speed. This should not come as a surprise. Sharia is rooted in the unalterable words of Allah and thus embodies the will of God for every aspect of society — past, present, future. Sharia is state, state is sharia, and sharia mandates proactive and perpetual war against Jews and Christians. This is the consensus of Muslim jurisprudence, which in concert with the will of Allah, mandates war as a “religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force” (Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah). Certainly, many Muslims are peaceful and tolerant; however, the history of Islam demonstrates conclusively that Islam is not a peaceful and tolerant religion. There is a collapse of clear thinking about Islam in the West, while thousands from Afghanistan are now entering the United States unvetted — and to suggest that terrorists are embedded among them is hardly unwarranted. Our porous borders expose the West to the same kind of terror that Afghanistan is presently experiencing.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Hank Unplugged podcast, responds to an article—a testimonial of a mother—in Insider, titled, “My Toddler Came Out as Trans at Age 4. He’s So Much Happier Now.” The anonymous author explains, “My son started telling me he was a boy a few months before he turned 2.” Then her toddler didn’t like her hair and didn’t have peace until she was given a boy haircut. “The short hair turned quickly into ‘boy’ clothing and underwear. From sitting to pee to trying to stand while peeing.” Different gender pronouns were preferred and so was a different name—“the name he chose for himself.” All of this, the enthusiastic and hope-filled mother tells us, has been a “sacred” journey. That little child—who months prior to reaching her second birthday knew that she was a boy—has a life ahead of her. And our hearts break. How does a girl become a boy? Can you change your biological sex? For the first time in history, we’re talking about decoupling biological sex and gender. Hard reality remains, however, that while you can mask biology, you can’t change it. We cannot magically transform female (XX) chromosomes into male (XY). Yet the publication of such an article is an attempt to enthuse others into allowing their toddlers to make decisions that will determine the rest of their lives. Western culture is truly at a tipping point.

Hank Hanegraaff, host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast, reflects on the difficult-to-imagine reality that on Friday (September 24, 2021), “House Democrats united behind legislation [H.R. 3755]…enshrining in federal law a virtually unlimited right to kill a baby through all nine months of pregnancy” (National Review). The naturalist philosopher John Stuart Mill—a religious skeptic— said, “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” In this regard, think of the words of King Solomon: “My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. If they say, ‘Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause’….My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, For their feet run to evil And they hasten to shed blood” (Proverbs 1:10–11, 15–16 NASB).

Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast, reflects on the teachings and recent death of John Shelby Spong, who for many decades influenced a great number of people within the Episcopal Church. Spong was well known for rejecting essential doctrines of the historic Christian faith, including the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, Virgin Birth, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. But consider the words of St. Paul, who asked, “If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you [like Bishop Spong] say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised [as Bishop Spong preached], your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:12–20 NIV).

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, reacts to Nancy Armour’s call in USA Today for another boycott. She says “NCAA and leagues shouldn't play big games in Texas.” Why? Because Texas governor Greg Abbott opposes the painful killing of innocent preborn human beings. She opines that we ought to be “champions of science, history, and critical thinking,” while castigating Texas officials for their “ghoulish obsession” with protecting preborn children, who from Armour’s perspective do not have the same value and right to life as she herself has. She bloviates about her commitment to science all the while denying that which ought to be self-evident to any thinking person. After all, what does the science say? As the late Dr. Micheline Matthews-Roth, a principal research associate at Harvard Medical School's Department of Medicine, put it, “It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception, when egg and sperm join to form the zygote, and this developing human always is a member of our species in all stages of its life.”

Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast, notes that on September 11, 2021, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America furthered its slide into illiberal liberalism with the installment of their first transgender bishop. This individual will oversee about 200 congregations within one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States—a denomination boasting 3.3 million members. The bottom line is that this is a matter of tampering with natural law—and to strike at natural law is to strike at the foundation of human civilization. Throughout human history, gender and sex have always been coupled together—it has been self-evident truth that men cannot become women, and women cannot become men. In the frank words of Dr. Paul McHugh, “transgendered men do not become women. Nor do transgendered women become men. All…become feminized men or masculinized women, counterfeits or impersonators of the sex with which they ‘identify.’”

Hank Hanegraaff is joined by J. Warner Wallace to discuss his new book Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World that Rejects the Bible. As a former atheist, Wallace understands why people would be skeptical about the significance of Jesus in our world today. When a pastor claimed that Jesus was the most significant figure in history, Wallace’s experience as a Cold Case Detective wouldn’t let him simply dismiss the claims of Christianity without a thorough examination of the facts. Employing his investigative background, Wallace was able to confirm the historicity and deity of Jesus—without relying on the New Testament manuscripts. Wallace no longer doubts the importance of Jesus and has dedicated his life to teaching others how to investigate the claims of Christianity and make a convincing case for the truth of the Christian worldview and the eternal importance of Jesus Christ—the quintessential person of history. For more information on receiving Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World that Rejects the Bible for your partnering gift, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-cri2110hup/Topics discussed include: What made Jesus so smart? (8:20); what is a cold-case detective? (10:30); the value of illustrations while making investigations and arguments (12:45); what made J. Warner Wallace believe that he could uncover the truth about Jesus using the same approach used to solve real murder cases (16:35); what is a person of interest? (18:25); the testimony of J. Warner Wallace (19:10); can you prove the historicity and deity of Jesus Christ without using evidence from the Bible? (22:45); did mythology impact Christianity or did Christianity actually have a bigger influence on mythology? (29:35); why did Jesus arrive at the precisely perfect moment in history? (34:55); examining extrabiblical accounts of Jesus Christ (37:40); there have been more books written about Jesus than anyone else and it is not even close (42:00); why were so many artists—Christians and non-Christians alike—inspired by Jesus Christ? (44:00); the impact of Jesus and his followers—Christians—on the history of education globally (56:00); the importance of parenting on raising Christian children that will remain Christians as adults (59:50); the myth that Christianity is anti-science (1:04:30); the impact of the Judeo-Christian worldview on scientific discovery (1:10:20); how did Jesus ignite a scientific revolution? (1:17:30); why does it make sense to believe in miracles? (1:20:45); the impact of Jesus Christ on world religions other than Christianity (1:27:30); the overwhelming historical impact of Jesus Christ (1:30:50); why Hank Hanegraaff believes that Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World that Rejects the Bible is apologetics at its best (1:35:20).

Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘯 broadcast and the 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘜𝘯𝘱𝘭𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘥 podcast, is excited about the new book by J. Warner Wallace, A Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World That Rejects the Bible (Zondervan, 2021). Wallace, a cold-case detective, shows that Jesus of Nazareth certainly is a person of interest—as a case in point, Jesus dominates the publishing and film industries. There are twice as many books on Jesus of Nazareth as there are on the nearest challenger. And no other religious figure in history has inspired as many screenplays and movies. Whether you love Jesus or despise Him, you cannot ignore Him.